Juan Manuel Cendoya

“Our clients know us to be a trustworthy, strong and solid brand, and this a reputation we aim to keep,” says Juan Manuel Cendoya, who leads corporate communications and marketing at Spain’s Banco Santander, one of the few financial services companies that can look back at the global crisis of recent years with any satisfaction, having diversified into emerging economies such as Brazil and via acquisition into established markets such as the US and the UK.

The bank operated under more than 20 separate names in 2004, but the emphasis since then on building the Santander brand has paid off. Cendoya has played a major role in that, leading the group’s internal and external communications, corporate marketing, corporate social responsibility, institutional relations, economic research and public policy and serving as a member of the bank’s global executive committee.